Trump's Actions Present a Risk to Civilized Society.
The internal and external strategies – ranging from the challenge to the democratic process in the past to recent actions and warnings – weaken not only domestic and international jurisprudence. But that’s not all.
These actions threaten the fundamental meaning of a civilized world.
The moral purpose of any advanced culture is to forestall the dominant from preying upon and using the less powerful. Otherwise, we would be trapped in a conflict of all against all where survival of the strongest wins.
This concept is central of America’s founding documents. It is equally the foundation of the postwar international order advocated by the United States, emphasizing international cooperation, democracy, individual liberties, and the rule of law.
But, it is a delicate ideal, easily violated by those who seek to abuse their power. Upholding it requires that the influential have enough integrity to avoid seeking immediate gains, and that the rest of us demand responsibility should they falter.
Absolute power does not make right. It results in instability, disruption, and conflict.
Whenever entities that are advantaged attack and exploit those that are less so, the fabric of our shared norms unravels. If such aggression are left unchecked, the fabric unravels. If not stopped, the world can fall into instability and violence. It has happened before.
Our current reality is a global community marked by extreme inequality. Political and economic power are increasingly centralized than in recent memory. This invites the privileged to leverage their position against the weaker because they act with a sense of above the law.
The fortunes of certain billionaires is almost beyond comprehension. The reach of major corporations in technology, energy, and aerospace covers numerous countries. Artificial intelligence is likely to consolidate resources and influence to a greater degree. The military might of the leading countries is without parallel in recorded history.
Supported by complicit legislators and a sympathetic supreme court, the executive office has been made into the most powerful and unaccountable agent of government in the modern era.
Combine these factors and you see the threat.
An unbroken thread links past lawless actions to ongoing provocations. These were founded upon the overconfidence of absolute power.
One observes much the same in international affairs: in wars of aggression, in coercive diplomacy, and in the rampant monopolization by industrial titans.
However, strength without restraint does not make right. It fosters uncertainty, upended order, and bloodshed.
Historical evidence demonstrates that laws and norms to check the powerful also protect them. Without such constraints, their insatiable demands for more power and wealth ultimately bring them down – along with their corporations, nations, or empires. And threaten international catastrophe.
This blatant disregard for rules will cast a long shadow over the nation and the world – and indeed a rules-based order – for the foreseeable future.
